Clear decrease in virus circulation and progression of the Delta variant in France

According to the epidemiological update of June 18, 2021 by Public Health France, a decrease in the incidence rates, hospitalizations and critical care admissions of SARS-CoV-2 have been observed in all French regions.

In week 23, all of the epidemiological indicators were down sharply at the national level. A sharp decrease in the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is observed in all age groups and in all metropolitan areas. After several months of excess mortality, the number of deaths from all causes had returned to expected values. As of June 15, 2021, 46% of the population had received a dose of the vaccine and 25% of the population was fully immunized.

The pressure continues to decrease in hospitals with 12,738 hospitalized patients (-376) including 1,740 Covid-19 patients in intensive care units this Friday (-59), according to figures from Public Health France (SPF). There are also 50 deaths in 24 hours. On the side of contaminations, there were 2439 cases in 24 hours, an average over seven days of 2719 cases against more than 15,000 daily cases a month ago. This is the lowest number since August 19 when three times more tests are carried out than at the time.

“On the national territory, the epidemic is in decline, it is in the process of being controlled”, welcomed the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, Thursday, the day of the end of the obligation to wear a mask outdoors .

The mask, a subject at the center of attention

In a press release from Thursday evening, June 17, the Paris Police Prefecture specified the conditions for lifting the obligation to wear a mask outdoors. This remains mandatory in ” markets, flea markets, unpacking sales, gatherings of people of all kinds on public roads, in public transport waiting areas, queues that form in public spaces ».

While it is still mandatory in certain circumstances, elementary school students, for their part, are no longer obliged to wear it during recess since Thursday. But it remains imposed inside, during the lessons. Doctors from the French Pediatric Society are asking that children can be exempted from wearing the mask, including indoors, due to improving figures for the Covid-19 pandemic in France. “Today there is no longer any scientific argument to keep the mask in the classes”, specifies the Parisian, Christèle Gras-Le Guen, President of the French Pediatric Society.

« In October 2020, while the viral circulation intensified, it seemed important to us to support the installation of masks from 6 years old. “, more ” the health situation no longer justifies it », Summarize the associations of pediatricians, in a communicated common published Thursday. ” Our Belgian and English neighbors have already ruled several weeks ago in this direction since children do not wear masks in primary school. »

The Delta variant still “in the minority” but on the rise

Still according to data from Public Health France published on Friday, the so-called British Alpha variant confirms, for the moment, its “predominance” on the national territory with 86.3% of the 1,723 samples sequenced during the “flash survey », Against 5.6% for the Beta variant (known as South African), 1.1% for the Gamma variant (known as Brazilian) and 1% for the Delta variant. Preliminary results from the flash survey, released last Friday, indicated 88% Alpha variant and 0.5% Delta variant.

The Delta variant of the coronavirus, initially detected in India and responsible in particular for a rebound in contaminations in the United Kingdom, remains very “in the minority” in France, but is “on the increase” in surveillance data, communicated Friday, June 18 , Public health France during its weekly update. This variant was found in 1% of samples during a sequencing “flash survey” carried out on May 25, compared with 0.2% in the previous survey, on May 11.

The health agency says it is following this “increasing diffusion” of the Delta variant with “the greatest attention, given its increased transmissibility (…), a possible increase in the severity of the infection and preliminary data in favor of ‘slightly reduced vaccine efficacy, especially during an incomplete vaccination schedule’.

In the UK, the Delta variant spread rapidly, replacing the Alpha variant in a few weeks, which appeared at the end of 2020 in the south-east of England. Taking into account the elements showing that it has “a more important competitiveness” than the Alpha variant, “one can expect that its prevalence will increase in the weeks and the months which come” in France, judged Sibylle Bernard-Stoecklin of the infectious diseases department of SPF. But “the temporality and the impact on the epidemic dynamics are not yet predictable”.

« The epidemic is not over, we are not immune to a rebound or infiltration by a variant », Warns Anne-Claude Crémieux on Classic Radio. The infectious disease specialist, in charge of infectious and tropical diseases at Saint-Louis Hospital, recommends complete vaccination coverage of 70% of adults “to have a shield to face these variants. “

Through Emma Forton

–